2 May high in low 80s..... sunny mid day and rainy evening.
I was fairly dejected in mid April as I had three colonies
1st Colony were Russian bees (strongest by far)
2nd was Carniolan from a split and bought the queen.
3rd was Italian.
The last two did not make it through winter and I found the queen dead. The Russian bees had at least 60 pounds of honey and made it through winter. In early Feb I went into the hive,top box only and they were in fair shape. Then we had a late freeze and within a week the temps recovered and I went in and they were all dead head in the cells and rear ends up in the air dead. I left the hive alone until early March. I then noticed in that hive some activity in the top. I figured it was robbing be a Ferral colony and I didn't touch it as I needed it cleaned out. So the activity continues into April and I go in again. This time my son and I look. A large cluster but I couldn't locate the queen and I don't see eggs, brood or lava. It's been a bit rainy and I decide to leave it and let them finish. Funny thing is I blocked the bottom and over the next two weeks I am watching and I see pollen being brought in. Strange if there isn' a queen, why would robbing bees bring in pollen.
I ordered four packages of Italians and get the other four sets of hive boxes setup. Then I breakdown the boxes looking for remaining honey. Note previously I through on a medium which had a bit of honey and pollen hoping the bees would clean it up. I go through the medium and it is empty of stores and I look at the deep under it there is a cluster small but they are there and I have a glimpse of the Queen running around. I back out and will look again on this Saturday. I may throw a feeder on there to see as I did leave it in a three deep with the medium.
Either they revived themselves from the cold ...... or I captured a swarm.... I don't know which....but serendipity.
Lessons learned.... forget treatment free beekeeping...
Adjust the hive so the food is directly above the colony.
Exiting from winter make sure to keep honey or feed into spring without honey supeŕs.... just to give the bees a chance until flowers and honey sources are available.
NEXT POST. ..... installing the packages.
No comments:
Post a Comment